How did Efua Sutherland create anansegoro from Ananse stories?

Efua Sutherland created anansegoro by adapting anansesem—the traditional Akan stories centered on Ananse the spider—into a formal dramatic structure.1

While anansesem are oral narratives featuring the famous trickster figure, Sutherland’s anansegoro transformed these tales into a "storytelling drama". By utilizing this form, she bridged traditional performance styles with modern theatre, most notably in her 1975 play, The Marriage of Anansewa: A Storytelling Drama. Through this approach, she maintained the wit and moral weight of the original folklore while creating a medium that was both artistically innovative and politically relevant to contemporary Ghanaian society. Her work at the Ghana Drama Studio further supported this exploration of traditional performance spaces and styles, establishing a foundation for future Ghanaian playwrights to integrate indigenous storytelling into the theatrical canon.21